NEWSLETTER

OUR MISSION: To protect and preserve our natural heritage and help build an environmental culture while developing a Botanical Garden dedicated to Mexican flora and providing an oasis of peace and tranquility for all.

Please tell your friends and prospective members/supporters how to access the newsletter and help broaden the base of support for the Botanical Garden.

Flowers open to all visitors

By Walter Meagher

POLLINATION IS A consequence of appetite and an inbuilt aptitude for finding satisfaction. The bee seeks nectar or pollen and becomes, without forethought or intention, the plant’s pollinator. About 80% of all flowering plants are pollinated by animals (insects mainly, but birds and bats too)

Some flowers and pollinators evolved together, interactively, as if, for example, a trumpet-vine floral tube became longer and longer in response to the reproductive success of the plant as a result of hummingbirds, with long slender bills, visiting its flowers for nectar year after year... Fidelity in the relationship of pollinator to plant is as if the plant made a flower fitted to only one pollinator, or to one class of pollinators, and no others. It was an alliance made over millennia, and the process was, and is, genetic change conferring selective reproductive advantage.

An Opuntia flower blooming early in the new year in El Charco is an example of an open flower. The petals of Opuntia fold back and lie halfway open; they are easily visible and there are many stamens. Bees and flies rumble amid the pollen. There is no specially constructed entryway with parts that have to be pushed aside or pried apart; the flower is open to whoever is attracted to its nectar.

Excerpt from Wild and Wonderful, Nature Up Close in the Botanical Garden ‘El Charco del Ingenio’, San Miguel de Allende, 2008 (for sale at the Botanical Garden giftshop).

Users and visitors in El Charco are invited to discover the Pollinators Garden –near the main entrance--, a newly designed area where a great variety of flowering plants call numerous bugs and hummingbirds. You will be able to observe an awesome example of collaboration in Nature.

Book presentation: Medicinal Plants Used in Northern Guanajuato New bilingual, illustrated book produced by a San Miguel team.

August 8th | 10:30 am | by the author Rosita Arvigo

The oldest book known on the subject of healing with plants in Middle America is the Badianus Codex produced in 1552. It is the work of two young Aztecs, carefully hand-written in Latin and illustrated in color. Since then, traditional healers, especially women, have kept the indigenous knowledge alive through oral transmission and practice within their families and communities.

Medicinal Plants Used in Northern Guanajuato is a beautifully illustrated bilingual Spanish and English book fresh off the press (July, 2012) that documents some of the herbal remedies still used in the central high plains of Mexico. During the summer of 2011, Dra. Arvigo interviewed twenty-four traditional healers, ranging in age from 38 to 94 years old, in the municipalities of San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo, and San Diego de la Unión. In total, she collected 107 plants and selected 48 species that grow wild and/or in gardens. In addition to the indigenous plants brought by the healers to the interviews, the book includes common plants known and used by the author.

The text includes easy-to-prepare home remedies using huizache, mesquite, corn, aloe vera, basil and thyme, just to name a few, with descriptions of dosage, preparation and administration. The plants in the book can be purchased from herbalists, found growing in the countryside, the streets, in pots and courtyards throughout the region –as well as in El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden.

Workshop on Natural Dyes

September 17-21 | 5 days from 10 a.m. to 4p.m. | Jose Buenaventura

Cost: $2,700 pesos general public, $2,500 members Language:Bilingual Limited space.
Registration starts in August with 500 pesos deposit at the Garden’s Reception

We have prepared a second intensive workshop with Master Jose Buenaventura who will teach how to make a diverse gamut of colors using various plants such as the cochinilla, achiote, the pepper tree, and many more.

Jose Buenaventura Gonzales is a Zapotec weaver from Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. As a child he learned the processes of wool: washing, carding, spinning and dying with vegetal products, as well as the warp of the material and the weaving of geometric or circular designs. He cultivates his own cochineal to use, applying the ancient technique of dying, producing diverse dyes and tones using plants such as the pomegranate, black zapote and walnut, among others. Jose actively works to promote and spread the traditional culture of the Zapotecas. He has given various workshop of cultivation and dying with the cochineal and other plants throughout the country and in the United States, always emphasizing the importance of an environmental culture and using organic materials and vegetable dyes.

For more information: elcharcocomunicacion@gmail.com

Photographer wins award in the U.S. with an image from El Charco

Honey Sharp, a North American artist and part time resident in San Miguel, received a prize from the prestigious New York Horticultural Society, with this landscape photo taken at the Botanical Garden. Honey has shared the good news with us and we do the same with our readers.

Land Art in El Charco | Call to Artists

Proposals to be submitted by October 12th

Various artists have worked in this media, Land Art, such as Robert Smithson, Andy Goldsworthy, Chris Booth, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Chris Drury, Walter Mason, Sebastian Silva, Jim Denevan, Dennis Oppenheim, to name a few. Places that are protected, conserved, have harmony and peace, such as the Botanical Garden and Reserve of El Charco del Ingenio inspire artists to use them as a perfect canvass. Once again we convoke artists and all creative people to walk, sit, smell, get to know the canyon, reservoir, paths of El Charco to be inspired and to join us in this experience.

Objective: Use the landscape of El Charco as a background an artistic creation in harmony with the natural surroundings of the Reserve. That is, artistically alter the land using natural materials of the region that integrate both visually and environmentally without damaging the space.

Eleven projects will be selected for presentation on November 24th, 2012.

Martita Garcia Granados: More than 15 years with El Charco’s Collection

She arrived when she was barely a teenager in 1997, neighbor of the Botanical Garden, with the job of watching the plant collection brought together by our first curator, the cactologist Charles Glass. Maybe the hours and days of solitary observation of this little plant world – like a shepherd with his flock – awoke in her a keen interest that little by little became knowledge, handling and caring for these rescued plants. The arrival of Martin Smith and his years as curator of El Charco’s collection, were definitive in helping Martita discover a vocation and decide to passionately dedicate her life to plants. With Martin’s help she and Lorena Gutierrez learned taxonomy, horticulture, propagation, proper handling, etc. When the master teacher had to return to his native England, this young San Miguel lady stayed on as curator of the plant collection at the Botanical Garden. These have been years of intense work and challenges for her, studying and observing the plants, invited by the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix for workshops, and in the National Botanical Garden in Havana, Cuba. With El Charco’s support, Martita was able to complete her high school studies and has now been accepted by the University of Queretaro for her degree in Horticultural Sciences. Martita has taken to her wings…On the one hand we celebrate and support her in this next step in her life while knowing that it will be difficult to replace her. She will still be with us on weekends, helping with the transition. Maybe someday Martita will return to El Charco, able to offer even more than she has in the past, which has been enormous. The entire staff and Board of El Charco thank you and wish you wonderful success in this new endeavor which you are starting, Martita!

Documenting Information in El Charco

Over the more than 20 years that El Charco has been a project preserving both the environment and culture, much botanical, ecological and ethnobotanical knowledge has been accumulated. This applies to the biodiversity that spontaneously grows in the preserve and its surrounding, as well as the rescued Mexican plants in the collection – the second most important in the country after the Botanical Garden at UNAM. After all these years, and with much participation by researchers and curators, we realized that this information needed to be organized and appropriately documented – no doubt a complicated and vast work which cannot be postponed. For this we have hired the professional services of a young biologist, graduate of UNAM, with experience and interest in systems information. His name is Israel Ramos Bermudez who is already in San Miguel, working in El Charco’s Research Center. We welcome Israel to the team and will update in future newsletters his progress on this project.

Improvements at the Reception Area of El Charco

Come by and see the changes we have made. The Gift Shop has been remodeled to better serve our visitors and make it easier to see the products. The patio in front of the Café has been extended, with a new stone and earth floor and above, protection from the sun made of reeds. Little by little.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

Bird Illustration Course

December 3-7

Costs and schedule coming soon

The class will be led by a Master teacher from the Denver Botanical Garden. More information to follow.

LAST MONTH'S ACTIVITIES

THE FESTIVAL OF LA SANTA CRUZ

During the 7 and 8 of July we celebrated, along with many people, the Festival of the Santa Cruz of El Charco del Ingenio. Several thousands, from both rural and urban areas of San Miguel, came to the Botanical Garden and Parque Landeta to participate in traditional dances and ceremonies and enjoy the huapango music from the Sierra Gorda.

SUMMER CAMP AT EL CHARCO

Around 30 children enjoyed this annual activity led by experienced instructors and El Charco’s staff. Our environmental education school during the summer has grown year after year and we hope to be able to continue offering this experience to the children for many years to come.

MONTHLY ACTIVITIES

THE FULL MOON CEREMONY

Friday August 31st | 8p.m.

We invite everyone to this open celebration that has been taking place for many years during the full moon cycle at the Four Winds Plaza in the Botanical Garden.
We celebrate the Full Moon Ceremony to come back into balance with nature on earth. Come and enthusiastically participate and dedicate your intention and energies at the Plaza of the Four Winds. Bonfire, incense, chanting, drumming included. Bring flutes, cymbals, a drum or any other instrument if you want.
It’s worth arriving a little early to admire the setting of the sun and the appearance of the moon over the mountains. You may want to bring a coat for cool evenings. Children welcome.

TRADITIONAL TEMAZCAL

Saturday, August 18 at 9:30a.m. | Sunday, August 19 at 9:30a.m.

This sweat-lodge steam bath, of ritual and healing character, takes place under the direction of an experienced temazcal leader in the ruins of the hacienda located in the Botanical Garden on the far side of the reservoir.

The combination of heat, humidity and fragrant herbs provides a purifying experience for the body and spirit. Its benefits are multiple: it activates circulation, increases the body’s defenses, eliminates pains, decreases uric acid, relaxes the muscles, regulates the nervous system, stimulates respiration and is excellent for losing weight.

RESERVATION NECESSARY : elcharcocomunicacion@gmail.com | Tel:154.8838, 154.4715, or in the Botanical Garden visitor’s center. Reservation deposit may be paid at the Garden’s reception or at Posada Corazon (Aldama 9).

Guided Tours in El Charco

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am | in English

Cost: $80 pesos, members $50Language:English Duration: 2 hours

The rain has come and El Charco is green! Enjoy a refreshing walk in the Garden and see the changes in colors, including all the varied colors of the prickly pears now in season. Visit the Conservatory of Mexican plants, the canyon, reservoir, vestiges of archeological ruins and more.

Bird-watching Tours

Every first and third Wednesday of the month, 9 am – 11:30 am. | Guide: Signe Hammer

The walks are for birders of all levels. They begin at 9:00 am and last about 2 1/2 hours. No reservations needed, and feel free to leave the walk at any time. Please bring binoculars, wear comfortable walking shoes and a hat, and bring water. Your guide will meet you after you pass through the Reception area of the Botanical Garden.

Visit the Gift Shop and Café

Come and see our recently remodeled Gift Shop with new and attractive products. Your purchases help small producers - and our conservation project! Thank you for your support.